Woodbury-based Globe University must pay a former dean almost $400,000 in damages, a jury in her Washington County District Court whistleblower trial found Thursday.

Heidi Weber was one of two former Globe deans who sued the university last year, alleging they were fired after raising concerns about the for-profit school’s student recruitment practices.

Weber, who led the school’s medical assisting program, claimed she was dismissed after she argued the university should have informed students about a shortage of externship opportunities and other issues.

Globe attorneys countered that Weber was fired in 2011 after numerous complaints about her performance, including a failure to deal with the very issues on which she later claimed she blew the whistle.

The attorneys said Weber failed to make a winning case under the Minnesota Whistleblower Act: She voiced concerns only to superiors, rather than to an outside watchdog agency, and her allegations did not constitute violations of the law.

But after deliberating for about 10 hours, the jury sided with Weber.

“I felt vindicated,” Weber said. “This has been a 2 1/2-year process for me, and I feel the jury gave me justice.”

An attorney for Globe said the university likely would appeal.

“We felt there was a lot of irrelevant and prejudicial evidence put before the jury that tainted their deliberations,” said Matt Damon, citing testimony by former Globe employees that he felt had no bearing on the complex case. “We do not feel she proved her case.”

The allegations of the former Globe deans came amid national scrutiny of for-profit colleges and their marketing strategies. Last year, a report from a two-year U.S. Senate investigation bashed some of these colleges’ aggressive recruiting and raised concern about graduation and loan default rates. That report did not include Globe.

Weber said she and a lawyer met with Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and discussed Weber’s allegations for more than two hours last spring.

Ben Wogsland, a spokesman for Swanson, said the attorney general’s office cannot confirm or deny the existence of any pending investigations.

He said Swanson has made clear her ongoing interest in examining the practices of for-profit higher education institutions. In 2011, Swanson’s office joined a lawsuit in Pennsylvania against another company running for-profit schools.

The 128-year-old Globe and its sister school, Minnesota School of Business, have seen rapid enrollment growth in recent years. The two schools serve more than 11,000 students on campuses in five states and online.

The second lawsuit — from former business dean Jeanne St. Claire — is scheduled for trial next year.

Weber was promoted to medical assisting dean in early 2010 after serving as adjunct instructor and later program chairwoman on Globe’s Sioux Falls, S.D., campus.

Shortly thereafter, she disagreed with a university decision to switch accreditation agencies. According to court documents, she argued the new agency’s less stringent standards would hurt graduates’ training and employment prospects.

Globe said the new arrangement would allow it to get accreditation for new medical assisting programs faster, ensuring students landed jobs at graduation.

About that time, Allina Health informed the university that because of the accreditation change, it would no longer host students for externships or consider graduates for employment. An Allina spokesman said the health care provider has not resumed its relationship with Globe.

Naomi McDonald, a spokeswoman for Globe, said the university has resolved the externship shortage issue and has made academic improvements to the medical assisting program since Weber’s departure.

Weber claimed she was fired because she continued to sound alarms on campus. She said she complained that students were not alerted about the accreditation change or a worsening externship shortage.

But Globe said David Metzen, the newly hired provost at the time, fired Weber after receiving complaints about unresponsiveness and poor follow-through from regional program directors and others.

Among the reasons for her departure was her failure to deal with the challenges the medical assistance program was experiencing, court documents said.

“They really felt this was a termination that needed to happen to ensure the quality of this program,” Damon said.

Attorneys also said Weber failed to show evidence the university had misled students or hurt their career prospects. They noted she shared concerns only with her superiors and, even if they were true, none of them were illegal.

Weber said she has been unable to find another job in education locally and remains unemployed. She said she hopes the end of the trial will make it easier to resume her career.

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